Pen. Code, § 480 · Chapter 4. Forgery and Counterfeiting
Pen. Code, § 480
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every person who makes, or knowingly has in his or her possession any die, plate, or any apparatus, paper, metal, machine, or other thing whatever, made use of in counterfeiting coin current in this state, or in counterfeiting gold dust, gold or silver bars, bullion, lumps, pieces, or nuggets, or in counterfeiting bank notes or bills, is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for two, three, or four years; and all dies, plates, apparatus, papers, metals, or machines intended for the purpose aforesaid, must be destroyed.
(b) (1) If the counterfeiting apparatus or machine used to violate this section is a computer, computer system, or computer network, the apparatus or machine shall be disposed of pursuant to Section 502.01.
(2) For the purposes of this section, “computer system” and “computer network” have the same meaning as that specified in Section 502. The terms “computer, computer system, or computer network” include any software or data residing on the computer, computer system, or computer network used in a violation of this section.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 364. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=480.
- Text hash
- sha256 3f4a5ee181fc9d18a1e09555fdbbe9a3d91c892c41432b720e4ce6b0269f8020
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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